After returning silently to Velaris from the failed meeting with the mortal queens, Rhys gathers Feyre, Mor, Cassian, Azriel, and Amren in the garden. Rhys explains that the queens want proof that he and his court can be trusted. The group considers killing or replacing the queens, sending Mor to negotiate again, or using deceit, but Rhys rejects each option because time is short, the Book of Breathings may require willing consent, and the human palace is too dangerous for Mor or other Fae.

When Feyre asks about Miryam and Drakon, Rhys and the others explain the old history behind them. Miryam, a half-Fae woman born into slavery in the Black Land, escaped after being given to Prince Drakon; she later fought with Jurian’s rebel forces and loved him before eventually choosing Drakon. Though everyone believed Miryam and Drakon died after the War, they actually survived and disappeared to live in peace with their people. Rhys refuses to reveal their refuge to the queens, even though Drakon’s army might someday be useful, because exposing them would betray friends who already suffered enough.

Rhys then chooses a new plan: he will prove his intentions by showing the queens Velaris. He intends to do this with the Veritas, a truth-filled orb guarded by Mor’s family and recognized by humans since the last War. The next day, Rhys, Mor, Cassian, and Feyre will visit the Court of Nightmares as cover while Azriel steals the orb from Mor’s father’s chambers, allowing them to present Velaris as undeniable truth rather than illusion.

That night, Feyre walks through Velaris and stops at the edge of the Rainbow, thinking about the city’s beauty and how much Rhys is risking by exposing even a glimpse of it. She wants to enter the artists’ quarter but turns back, afraid to love something that war might destroy. Her hesitation shows both her lingering fear and how deeply Velaris now matters to her.

Back at the town house, Rhys admits he is considering asking Feyre to stay behind because the role he must play in the Hewn City will make him seem cruel again. Feyre insists on helping, and Rhys explains why Mor was so shaken: years earlier, Mor’s family tried to marry her to Eris of the Autumn Court, she slept with Cassian to ruin the match, and her family then brutalized her and abandoned her with a note claiming she was Eris’s problem. Azriel found Mor after Eris left her there to die. Horrified and enraged, Feyre understands Mor and Rhys better, takes Rhys’s hand, and asks what she must do for the visit to the Court of Nightmares.